A voice echoed through Gem’s consciousness.

He had no idea who it belonged to. It sounded like Chesu, but that was impossible.

A sardonic laugh answered him.

Chesu paused for a moment to let the question fade.

Gem made a positive, confirming noise.

Gem glared at the ceiling as if he could see the wisp from where his consciousness floated.

The wisp trailed off again and didn’t return to the conversation.

What am I going to do with him, Gem thought as he returned his attention to the fight at hand. I need to prove he can trust me. That I’m not going to randomly fail him. Perhaps this fight will be it.

Gem remembered that Chesu said other cores had died to the winged Ostrum. And he could see why. The Ostrum were obviously not an easy foe. Had he been attacked at any moment before now, his Core surely would have been destroyed.

Need to focus, he chided himself. Any bit of help he could bring to his mobs might be the difference between winning and losing.

While talking to Chesu, his mobs had swarmed the second Ostrum. Gem was able to witness the cooperative actions of the Cicadossums as they assisted one another up the blocky limbs of the Ostrum. One would dig its claws in and hold tight while the other climbed up its friend’s body. When they got close enough to the head and shoulders, they launched themselves up in tandem to bite and claw at the Ostrum’s head once more.

The only problem this time was that this Ostrum still had its wings.

Instinct directed the Ostrum to flail and its leathery, organically shaped wings thrashed about its head. Gem wasn’t an expert on wings, but he was fairly sure they weren’t supposed to move like that. The Ostrum guided them like arms, using the massive limbs to swat the Cicadossums from its head.

Both fell to the ground, taking a massive amount of damage.

Neither were dead, but also neither rose.

The Ostrum roared in frustration and returned its attention to Magiphis.

Gem checked his menus. The Cicadossums were still alive, and well above half health. But they didn’t move, laid out on their backs on the cobblestone blocks.

What are they doing? Gem thought, just a hair’s breadth of a moment before the Cicadossums jumped to attention. They moved in tandem, first sitting up and then moving towards the Ostrum as one.

Gem wanted to ask Chesu about the action, but thought to check his menus first. Under his Mobs menu, he found a section on special abilities for the Cicadossums. It read:

Feign Death

When a Cicadossum takes 30% of its hit points in damage at once, or when it falls below 50% remaining hit points, it will use Feign Death. It pretends to die and can even cause its heart to stop. This will cause the aggressor targeting it to look elsewhere. After a new target has been established, the Cicadossum will end Feign Death and begin attacking again.

True to the text, the Cicadossums engaged the same Ostrum and scaled its form once more, but this time they split at the shoulders and attacked the thing’s wings instead.

Gem wished the Plantlings or Goosalopes had a way to help. If only he could somehow coordinate the Cicadossums to be ridden like mounts. Or if he could catapult the smaller creatures to new heights somehow…

Once the Cicadossums were able to latch onto the wings, however, help was unnecessary.

The Ostrum’s wings were a weak point. And a pretty big one at that. The membrane between the fingers was unarmored and thus tore easily. All it took was a well placed claw or bite.

With its wings taken out, that Ostrum stood no chance at survival. It fell soon after, emitting a wordless howl and vanishing in a puff of purple and black particles.

Gem sent to Chesu.

As if in reaction to his premature cry of victory, the remaining Ostrum threw its head back and roared.

Black and purple particles filled the air, raining down and scattering across the head and shoulders of the remaining Ostrum. Where they landed, mutations formed. The Ostrum cried out as two more heads jutted out of its left and right shoulders. Spikes formed across its arms, and an armored almost carapace coated its chest. Silver light sparkled across its three heads, and it took Gem a long moment to realize he was looking at an Ostrum approximation of a mouth. They were filled with daggers that reminded him of jagged shards of glass.

was all Gem could think to say.

Gem watched as the hydra-Ostrum shook out its limbs before engaging in combat with Magiphis once more. Where the hydra-Ostrum attacked, the carapace was wrenched away in giant chunks.

Gem closed the connection between them before Chesu could figure out Gem was lying.

He’d find out sooner or later, anyway.